Black, White, and Red
by Ryuusui
Summary: .challenge!fic.one-shot. Now there was only gray. Inviting, sleepinducing, blissful gray. Gray that would never end... .slight!rikuxaxel.


**black, white, and red  
.:challenge fic:.  
**man, i'm always so late with these things...  
but this time it wasn't my fault!  
oh, and also sorry for any OOCness, mistakes,  
anything bad at all... i'm really tired, y'see?  
**slight rikuxaxel**

**- - - - - **

**  
. shoes crack where you walk .  
settle down  
. inside, outside, amazing .**

Riku liked to walk down dark alleyways. A dangerous hobby, to be sure, but he enjoyed it none the less. The dark suited him. His silver hair and aquamarine eyes stood out from the black that surrounded him, and he liked it.

Some might say that all Riku was doing was hiding from the light. If Riku ever met those people, they probably wouldn't walk away from the encounter completely free of injury (for the great Riku ran from nothing!).

The light just wasn't the same, y'know?

It was always in his eyes. Yeah... that's it. It always got in his eyes, distorted his vision. If he looked at it too long, his eyes started to tear. If Riku were the paranoid type, he'd say the light was out to blind him permanately.

Everything about the light was so... harsh.

But the dark... it was so comforting. He could see just what he needed too. Riku didn't need extravagence, or details (he never payed much attention to them anyway). He liked the simplicity of black and white.

Because that's all there really was.

Black and white.

So Riku continued to walk down dark alleyways. He met people he probably shouldn't have, people that would only do him harm (especially Ansem). It didn't matter to him though -- he was only glad to find someone (anyone) that was like him.

**. acute angles, divide my .  
path that i had lost**

Who lived in darkness.

**. path that i had lost .**

His friends began to worry about him. No matter how much he tried to explain to them the thrill of darkness, they wouldn't understand. Kairi especially. She was so pure-hearted... nothing but the light could do for her.

Sora was a little better, but his innocence was too much. He couldn't grasp the concept of a world without color; surrounded by darkness. Color was everything to him.

Black and white.

Riku was content with being the black to Sora and Kairi's contrasting white. He felt it was good (he never liked to be too close). He enjoyed living in his simple world, with his simple (well, simple enough) friends.

He didn't need someone like Axel to come along and mess it up.

Ah, but such is life. Fate always seemed to hold a card against poor Riku. And so, suffice to say, the boy wasn't really all that surprised when his simple reality came crashing down around him.

**. tongue tied, couldn't talk .  
settle down**

"Crazy darking. You're gonna get yourself killed, walking around in dark alleyways all the time."

Riku spun around to face the bright and cheery person who was invading his dark.

"What do you want?"

"I'm Axel. A-X-E-L. Commit it to memory."

"... Is that like a catch phrase?"

The red-head looked indignant. "Catch phrase?!"

**. haven't lost .  
haven't cared at all**

Riku laughed.

"Oh, fine," he huffed. "Would you rather it be, 'Got it memorized?'"

This being -- "Axel, damn it. Just say my name!" -- was a citizen of both the light, and the dark. He was an abnormality. He was different.

Suddenly there wasn't just black and white anymore. There was also that gray-color in the middle. It was a color Riku suddenly felt drawn (pulled) to. And he could see slight (almost non-existent) hues of color while standing in this... gray. And he liked it.

The blinding white couldn't touch him here.

And the black didn't seem quite so inviting anymore.

Now there was only gray. Inviting, sleep-inducing, blissful gray. Gray that would never end...

**. i close my eyes .  
nothing to see here**

His friends barely noticed his change in behavior. To them, he was still the Riku that was surrounded by darkness. The Riku that liked to walk down dark alleyways and not care what happened to him.

But, that wasn't the Riku that really was. Not anymore.

The new Riku walked between light and dark, in the gray area. He liked to think of it as _twilight_ (but maybe it was really dawn). The new Riku stopped walking through dark alleyways, stopped assosciating with people who hurt him (finally showed that Ansem what's what).

But although the old Riku was gone, the new Riku still seemed the same to everyone else.

**. and when you see the big crack in the sunlight .  
you know it's over somehow  
. and then a pinhole sky explodes out .**

He supposed that it didn't really matter. As long as he (Axel) knew, then he'd be fine. Content with living in this twilight, gray area. The gray where the colors of light (were muted) existed and so did the dark's inviting feeling... The gray where he (Riku) and the other -- "... My. name. is. Axel! Come on, it's not so hard to say!" -- existed, and no one could touch them.

Riku lived in this world inbetween.

This world of gray... and red.

**. i close my eyes .  
nothing to see here**

- - - - -

** edit ::  
**i totally forgot to put the name of the song in here...  
+ sigh +  
so, the song is "Sender" by Pinback  
hope you enjoyed. REVIEW! ;)


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